New York wants to tax ebooks, other digital content
Sometimes people propose ideas that just make you shake your head and wonder: "What are they thinking?" Strangely enough, a lot of these ideas come from our own government (sarcasm!).
The state of New York has proposed one such idea: Tax ebooks and other digital content. I heard about this idea before, then read about it today on this post over at the Teleread blog. The consequences of such a tax could be devastating to the budding ebook market:
The New York insanity, if enacted into law, could lead to more taxes of this ilk in other states and add to expenses for small e-booksellers. It could even encourage piracy by jacking up costs for legitimate buyers.
Both points made in the above quote are pretty scary. First, once one state enacts a stupid law like this, others are sure to follow in a domino-like effect. Second, the tax will force prices to rise on all digital content, which will probably lead to more problems with piracy.
Granted, the economy is in the dumps right now and state governments are also as cash strapped as their own citizens. But is slapping more taxes on consumer goods really the answer? Instead, I prefer the answer Teleread gives to the problem of underfunded state governments:
So how might New York and other cash-strapped states raise much-needed money? Well, I’d love to see politicians at both the federal and state levels truly sock it to billionaires and the very richest multimillionaires—campaign contributions notwithstanding. We’re talking about rich-rich, not your garden-variety Millionaire Next Door.
That’s right, make the super-rich cough up some extra dough. I’m sure there is also a lot of waste in New York’s budget that could probably be cut as well.
Aside from hurting ebook consumers (such as myself and the good folks at Teleread), it will also hurt publishers – who are already barely scraping by. Ebooks might just be the "savior" of the publishing industry, and taxing them like this would probably kill ebooks off.
My "doom and gloom" predictions are only based on the idea that ebooks and the ebook industry is still in its infancy and hasn’t yet hit critical mass. Once ebooks are mainstream, then a tax probably wouldn’t kill them off (although it wouldn’t help much either), but because many still see ebooks as something unique and even a "novelty" item, an increase because of a tax will just be a deal-breaker.
Do you think ebooks and other digital content should be taxed? Why or why not? Give us your opinion and leave a comment below!
Related Posts
- Indiana cracks down on booksellers offering sexually explicit material!
- Two large publishers going digital, kind of
- Ebooks not a giant leap for most
- How ebooks can enhance your reading experience
Read More: Publishing News, Reading, Technology
